MASERU — Rap artist Papa Zee wasn’t supposed to be the main act at the Dunamis’ album launch show at Litaleng Leisure Club last Saturday.
So why were revellers disappointed when he didn’t pitch up?
Well, that’s because Dunamis has been promising for weeks that Papa Zee would be there.
Papa Zee’s performance was the “surprise” that Dunamis had promised his fans.
“People have said Papa Zee and I have beef so to prove that we are on good terms and have a working relationship, we will be sharing the stage and we have a surprise for our fans,” Dunamis told the Weekender a fortnight ago.
Papa Zee might not be the best thing to have happened to Lesotho’s hip-hop but he does have a huge fan base.
So it’s possible that some of the 200 people who thronged the Litaleng Leisure Club on that chilly Saturday night were there precisely because Dunamis had promised them that the Starring star “would be in the house”.
They had reason to feel let down.
To add to Dunamis’ misery South Africa’s hip hop artist, Pitch Black Afro, also did not show up for the show.
But then that did not seem to bother most of the people because Pitch Black Afro is not really that popular in this country.
The proof: he was in Lesotho in April to promote his album and less than 20 people bothered to attend his show at Maseru Sun Hotel.
Yet the failure by Papa Zee and Pitch Black Afro to pitch up did not spoil the party.
What almost torpedoed the show was the two-hour delay caused by emcees who arrived late.
Themba Nyathi of Joy FM and Palizetra of PC FM only appeared on stage when revellers were almost getting numb from waiting.
The two literally staggered to the stage looking a bit tipsy.
That should have killed the show but it didn’t because as soon as artists started performing the revellers forgot about that minor mishap and took to the dance floor.
It would seem that from that point on Papa Zee and Pitch Black Afro were not that missed.
Local artist King Pablo got the show going on a high tempo with his hit song Qhebelele.
Local kwaito star Mthibo took over from where King Pablo had left and got the revellers dancing to his two singles, Summer Song and Jump and Reverse from his upcoming album.
L-tore and his partners Case Closed and Lyno gave an electrifying performance and almost “stole” the show.
The trio put up what was arguably the most polished performance of the night.
Theirs was a performance that local hip-hop artists need to emulate if they want to make it in the music industry.
After that Skebza and MSU took the microphones. They too did not disappoint.
Crax, a hip hop artist from Swaziland, mesmerised the crowd with his talent.
The Swaziland star left the stage to Morale, à la mode hip hop group from South Africa.
They charmed the ladies and certainly taught the male revellers some tricks on how to please women in their lives with words.
It was slightly after midnight when Dunamis, the show’s main act, took to the stage.
The Mastered Seed star opened with True Born Blood, a track from his new album The Glory and da Streets.
He performed a number of tracks from his debut album Mastered Seed and left it to DJ El-Que to show Maseru why he is dubbed the hottest hip hop DJ in South Africa.
The DJ was behind the decks until the wee hours of morning, helping the fans shake the cold away.
Dunamis told the Weekender he was satisfied with the turn-out.
“Bearing the fact that it is winter and the show is an outside event, I didn’t expect such a high turn-out.
“I am very grateful for the support that locals always show me when I organise events,” he said.
“If the support I got could be given to all the talented cats in Lesotho, we would go far.”
“I saw a lot of talent from both local and Mzansi (South Africa) but L-tore almost stole the show, he has shown maturity and I urge the local crowd to give support to local artistes so that Lesotho can make waves.”
